I was fresh out of college when I first got to know about a job role called as Business analyst. It sounds pretty cool, isn't it? Fat paycheque and fancy business trips are not always the case when we consider an entry-level Business analyst, as opposed to someone who is entering the glamorous life of MBB consulting(Read McKinsey, BCG, Bain)
Although if someone sticks to this job role for 3+ years, there's some serious money to be made out there. You will be most sought after if you're a Banking/healthcare domain Business analyst. There's lot of value in the job market for someone who holds expertise in these domains. On an average, a senior business analyst with 1-3 years of work experience earns $117000 USD (Source: https://www.builtinla.com/salaries/data-analytics/senior-business-analyst/los-angeles) And the icing on the cake is that this job role has remote job opportunities. For instance, one of the Banking giants Capital One based out of Virginia, USA is offering Senior Business analyst remote working opportunity. Check the opportunity here
So let's address the elephant in the room! Why is the business analyst role so demanding?
So here it is: As a Business analyst, you will be donning many hats instead of just one. What I mean by that is, sometimes you will play the part of SDLC testing automation QA engineer, UI/UX designer, Software developer, data engineer, and data analyst as well. Yes it's true that 70% of your time will be spent in assessing the data, conducting requirements elicitation sessions, and conducting gap analysis alongwith data analytics using tech stack(Python, AWS, Conda, R programming language) At first glance, this looks terrifying but only on paper.... Let me explain how... When you're hired as a Business analyst, you're not expected to be the Jack of all trades in one week. It takes time to be good at all these tasks, which we just discussed. I used to struggle initially back in my Accenture days, but fell in love with this job role eventually. This job role opens up a lot of opportunities. It gives you a chance to be on the business side and present your contributions to the Executive Leadership team in an organisation. And alongwith that, this job role takes care of you on the monetary side as well. The demand for business analysts is growing worldwide. If you can build these skills, then you don't need a Masters degree to transition to a Business analyst role. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that demand will increase by 10% between 2022 and 2032, faster than average for all occupations. Business analysts are already in huge demand, and it seems that demand will only increase with time. And we're already in mid 2024. However, there is a shortage of analytically savvy candidates to fulfill such roles—a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people in the US alone. The hot demand for analysts puts BAs in good stead to earn a handsome salary, competitive amongst other tech careers.
So if you want to learn how to build the skills for becoming a Business analyst and which are the most common interview questions being asked in 2024, I have written down my personal learnings from my time as a Business analyst at Accenture in an ebook. You can check it out here Until next time we meet, Cheers!